When things went south in 2008 due to the recklessness of our major financial institutions and lack of sufficient oversight from the White House and Congress, the decision was taken to save the day by printing up masses of fresh greenbacks to throw at the problem. When going further into debt did not work (surprise!), the next president, Obama, did the same thing on an even grander scale, but not before ramming through yet another huge entitlement program that we simply could not afford, as many economists warned.

I've long thought that an increasingly decadent United States – seemingly enjoying a non-stop party while largely ignoring the deep debt hole its leaders were digging – would not remain solvent in the end, with all the calamitous consequences for America and the world that implies. The day of reckoning seems to be drawing very near, despite the fact that we have an excellent, educated work force, leading high-tech industries, much of the world's top corporations, etc. Look for the ugly violence gripping London and other U.K. cities to come to America as joblessness spikes up once again, leaving despairing inner-city young people with nothing better to do.

I expect the dollar will be dumped in the end by our main foreign funders, China, Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia (doesn't that look like America's enemy list from not so long ago?), but not in favor of the Chinese yuan, as the providential leaders in Beijing probably hope for. No, it will have to be the euro, despite the current severe financial problems in several of the European Union's major partner states. In the end, the currency still has a solid core in Germany, and an outside backer in relatively solvent EU member country Great Britain. More than that, there is no realistic alternative currency to choose from.

The successive American governments and Congresses have not stayed even close to our actual national means for many decades, and the time to pay the piper has apparently arrived.